The Jewel of Durin
by Artemisdesari
Summary: Fili has lived in Bree all of his life with his brother and their Uncle Thor, until one terrible winter when Kili was taken from them. His life is turned upside down when a wizard comes and drags the pair of them on a quest to retrieve a stolen artefact. Fili's life will never be the same, especially as it soon turns out his uncle is not who he has always claimed to be.


**The Jewel Of Durin**

_**Summary:** Fili has lived in Bree all his life with his Uncle Thor and his brother, until one terrible winter when Kili was tragically taken from them. Some years later a wizard comes and drags the pair of them into a daring quest to retrieve a stolen artefact and Fili's life is changed forever, especially as it turns out that his uncle is not who he has always claimed to be. Meanwhile, Bilba Baggins has decided that she is not, under any circumstances, going to go to the dwarf kingdom of Moria and present herself as a bride before an empty throne. She'll run away if she has to and if she encounters a band of dwarfs on a quest as she does so, so much the better. It's just a pity the wizard responsible for her having to take the trip to Moria in the first place is with them._

_**A.N**:Alternatively, the Hobbit and Belgariad mash-up that absolutely no one ever asked for but that I decided to write anyway. I'll be mixing and matching elements of both stories, as well as adding elements from Lord of the Rings. Ninety-nine percent of any dwarf and hobbit history used will be totally made up, mixed with just a teeny tiny bit of canon. Just assume canon is mostly dead and you won't go too far wrong in all honesty. I seem to have a thing against canon at the moment. Girl Bilbo is necessary, again, and for some reason I have a liking for writing that at the moment as well. It will pass. Weekly updates with this one (I've spoiled so many with my thrice daily updates on The Blessing) as I'm breaking my own rules and posting as I go. This is my destress story with the house move. I've had a creeping migraine from stress and so I'm writing as and when I can to alleviate that. I've had this planned for years but never actually sat down to write it. I found all the notes while clearing out old notebooks and here I am. Cross posted on AO3_

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**Chapter One: Fili**

Many of Fili's earliest memories are of his Uncle Thor's forge in Bree. The scorching heat of the fire, the whoosh of the bellows and the clang of heated metal being worked, the hiss of a piece being cooled in bucket after bucket of water and the rasp of files and whetstones sharpening blades and leaving the finishing touches. No matter where his life would eventually take him, Fili would always think of that forge with fondness and longing, especially for the early days of his youth when he could hear the bright laughter and soft voice of his brother. Kili, with hair like coal and eyes like obsidian, his earliest playmate and dearest friend. The warm body he would curl up next to on miserable winter days when the rain came down in sheets or the snow had been melted down to little more than murky sludge by the boots of Men and dwarrow and the steel shod hooves of horses and ponies. Kili who had been taken from them by the terrible Fell Winter and left Fili alone in the forge with their Uncle Thor and a broken sense of hopeless loneliness that not even their friends could fill.

In all of this, the one constant that Fili has, even before his brother had been taken, is Uncle Thor. Thor is a big dwarf, broad of shoulder with the large and well-defined muscles of master smith. His dark hair, almost always caught back in a simple leather tie, is rarely found in braids and is streaked through with silver. His blue eyes are like ice most of the time, unless he is caught in a rare moment off guard and usually when looking at Fili, where they hold all the warmth of a perfect summer evening. Thor always seems to know where he is, even when Fili has no desire to be found, and there are times when that grinds against him like a rock slide and others where he is profoundly grateful for his uncle. Usually when he and his friends, and once Kili, have managed to get themselves into some sort of trouble.

There are other dwarrow in Bree, the Mannish settlement seems to be something of a melting pot for three of the races in Middle Earth to come together populated as it is by Men, Dwarves and Hobbits. This naturally means that there are other dwarrow Fili's age, or near enough for it to make no real difference. There is Gimli, with the blazing hair of a Firebeard and the swift temper of a Longbeard, and though he is twenty years younger than Fili (and fifteen years younger than Kili before he was lost to them) the young lad follows the older willingly and loyally. The other is Ori, who lives with his brothers and is eighteen years older than Fili although his shyness makes him seem all the younger. Ori's eldest brother, Dori, is a tailor and everything that is proper in a dwarf, his other brother, Nori, seems more like a fabrication as he is so rarely in Bree that Fili has never met him. The only reason Fili knows that Nori exists at all is that he regularly hears Dori cursing about him. Ori has the best stories, though, being more of a scholar than a warrior and Fili often finds himself wishing that Kili were still here to listen to them with a tankard of pilfered ale and his brilliant laughter.

"What happened to my parents, Uncle?" Fili asks one wet day in the forge. Kili has been gone for three years, and though the wound is still deep and still hurts, it has also brought with it the old question that Thor has never answered. He's in his early sixties and the only memories he has of them is the sound of violins and harps and the scent of fresh baked bread. "They're dead, too, aren't they?" He asks after a moment of steady silence while Thor gazes at him with unreadable eyes. His uncle nods, once, his expression grave as he sets aside the piece he had been working on. Fili feels helpless grief bubble through him, though he has always known in some way that they are gone, and coupled with the aching hole in his heart that Kili once filled it brings him to his knees and he weeps bitter tears.

For the first time in years, the first time since Kili disappeared (though he must be dead no body was ever found), Thor takes the young dwarf into his arms and holds him as he sobs his loss into Thor's broadly muscled chest, thick with the comforting scent of hot metal and burning coal. And when that first anguished flood has run its course, Thor runs his fingers through tangled blond locks and tells him about his mother and father. Speaks of Dis who had a voice as pure as mithril and who was so beautiful that even an elf would have to admit it. Tells him of Vili, who has given Fili all of his looks save his eyes (which were Kili's) and who was so instantly smitten with Dis that he fell over his own feet and knocked her into a muddy puddle. They talk about them until well into the night and it eases the pain of wondering who he should be.

Life in Bree is simple and easy, for the most part, if hard work. The Shire is nearby and the funny little hobbits, who so distrust strangers and outsiders, will often send a more adventurous Took or Brandybuck into the town with a wagon load of repairs and commissions for the dwarf craftsmen who live there and the merchants who come to the annual fair from Ered Luin, Khazad-dûm and the Iron Hills. It allows for plenty of work and a dwarf who is particularly good at a craft the hobbits have a use or need for can become fairly wealthy off the little folk. Fili knows for a fact that Thor has done well out of them over the years and they have enough money put aside that they could easily journey to one of the Western dwarf settlements and set up a new home and a new life. He would like to experience living under stone as all dwarrow should but every time he brings it up Thor will tell him that now isn't the time, or that he should focus on perfecting his own grasp of their shared craft or his swordsmanship rather than dreaming of other places. Fili doesn't argue, Thor is capable of reducing even the most intimidating dwarf or Man to a gibbering wreck purely with a glare and the raising of an eyebrow.

Among the dwarrow who pass through regularly is Dwalin. The old warrior is covered in scars and tattoos, his bald head telling its story of the battles and wars he has fought in very clearly. He and Thor will talk well into the night once Fili is in bed, rumbling away in Khuzdul and when they were children the secrecy would frustrate Fili and Kili. While Thor had refused to teach them the language of their forefathers, however, Ori had quickly stepped in and Fili is grateful for it, though Thor and Dwalin _still_ guard their words when talking so they likely know that Ori has made up for the gaps in Fili's education.

In all it is a good life, the work is hard, and he sometimes rises almost as exhausted as he was when he went to sleep when they have large orders to complete, but it is good all the same. Fili enjoys it and as the years pass his muscles fill out and harden from hours in the forge and at weapons practice. His beard begins to come in, he starts to earn his braids, and his eye is caught by more than one young hobbit and dwarf. He could be happy here for the rest of his life.

He's sixty-eight, Kili has been gone for seven years, when Fili's life begins to change in the most drastic of ways.


End file.
